We are proud to introduce this special issue of the journal “Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations,” which is devoted to selected papers from the International Conference “Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2007.” The conference was organized by the Nuclear Society of Slovenia and Jožef Stefan Institute, and took place from September 10 to 13, 2007, in Portorož, Slovenia.

Although
it began modestly as the yearly meeting of the Nuclear Society of Slovenia,
this annual conference has gradually become a truly international meeting of professionals,
researchers, academics, members of regulatory bodies, and others involved in the
peaceful use of nuclear energy. The International
Conference “Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2007” was the 16th in the series.
The conference was attended by 175 registered participants from 22 countries. Altogether,
112 papers were presented: 48 orally during plenary sessions and 64 as posters.
The conference thus proved again to be an international forum for the exchange
of ideas from various topics related to nuclear energy.

This is
the first time that extended versions of selected papers from the conference
are published in a special issue of an international journal. Although the idea
of publishing such a special issue has been discussed for some years, it was
not realized until now due to the lack of opportunity. The journal “Science and
Technology of Nuclear Installations” proved to be a suitable publication for
such an undertaking.

After
the closing of the conference, authors of papers, presented at the conference, were
invited to submit extended papers for publication in the special issue. Papers
that were submitted then went through an extensive peer-review process to
ensure a high quality of the publications. As a result, 13 papers are included
in this special issue. The papers belong to various topics that were considered
at the conference.

We take
this opportunity to express our gratitude to the conference organizers, to the
members of the program committee who performed the first selection of papers
and elaborated the conference program, and the reviewers who contributed to the
final form of this special issue. Last but not least, we would like to thank
Hindawi Publishing Corporation for offering the possibility for this special
issue and the members of its editorial staff for all the assistance they have provided.